Ryan Salame, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency firm FTX, has been sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of campaign finance violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, according to the British newspaper Financial Times. This ruling places Salame alongside FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last March for fraud following the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which was once one of the most popular platforms for cryptocurrency trading in the world.
According to the newspaper, Salame, 30 years old, was one of four former executives at FTX who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges after the company's downfall in late 2022. Prosecutors, who sought a 7-year prison sentence, accused Salame of committing a campaign finance crime, which amounted to "one of the largest crimes in American history."
Sam Bankman-Fried, the so-called "crypto king," was sentenced to 25 years for massive fraud associated with the collapse of FTX. Salame acted as an unofficial donor for election campaigns, helping FTX contribute over $100 million to political campaigns before the 2022 midterm elections. According to the Financial Times, Salame provided funds to candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties to assist Bankman-Fried in securing their endorsements, admitting that the donations were "funded by transfers from a subsidiary of the Alameda fund owned by FTX."
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who brought the case, stated that Salame's crimes "helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside the law" and "undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system." Meanwhile, Salame's lawyers, who sought a sentence of no more than 18 months, argued that the revelation of FTX stealing billions of dollars from clients in November 2022 "was as shocking and terrifying to Ryan Salame as it was to anyone else in the world," asserting that he "was not in Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle."
